Lysmata amboinensis larva

[KUDA]

Wow!!! Amazing!!!

[aomont]

Great photos and great explanation Luis ! Cristal clear as they say !
Now I´m gonna have to go back and read everything from this thread again !
Anderson.

[leeweber85]

awesome job. What are you feeding the larvae and what type of setup do you use?

[Luis A M]

Originally posted by leeweber85
awesome job. What are you feeding the larvae and what type of setup do you use?

I think it was explained up in the thread.Sure,too long to read
Food was bbs and Otohime.

[Ricardo Calado]

Hi Luis

Congratulations!!!!

Nice work.

About the academics.... not all are the same. Me and Andy when we come up with the rearing system for the larvae of ornamental shrimps the firt thing we did was to publish a description (in a scientific journal, but is a difefrent story...) However i am sure that many other "academics" would just think about keeping it top secret qnd setting up a company...

Keep up the good work!

Ricardo

[Luis A M]

Thanks Ricardo and be WELCOME!!!!!
Glad you joined,you have so much to share with us!

[drmaz]

G'day Luis,

Let me first say congrats on your efforts with L. amboinensis. I love how detailed you are with your threads, its great to see someone finally talking in detail about raising L. amboinensis ( and I love the great pics) because up till now I have only found infomation that is fairly vague.

I think that you and I have a lot in common I have been breeding L. vittata, this is the Australian Peppermint Shrimp ( yes it dose it eat the nasty little aiptasia anemones ) for some time now. I have just started breeding L. amboinensis. My larva are now 12 days of age not sure on what number Z they are at (I still have 100 - 120 larva). I am also working on S. hispidus (I see you are also working on them ) and I have just brought a pair of L. debelius, but no eggs yet. Some people might say I am spreading myself to thin, but as this is my new full time job I know I can handle it. And I will be sharing any secretes I might discover along the way, as I am not like some other breeders out there who like to keep their secrets to them self.

I have a couple of Q's for you if you don't mind?

1. do you know where I can get a copy of Mark Wunsch paper ( or any other papers that may be of interest)? it sounds very interesting.
2. How are you taking such great photos are you using a camera or a camera on your microscope?

and I'm sure that I will have some more Q's later, but know I'm off the read your thread on S. hispidus

Thanks
Stan

[Luis A M]

Welcome Stan to RC! Lots of aussies around!
Thank you for the kind concepts.It is encouraging to get some feed back.Sometimes you doubt if somebody cares about your pics or observations
Something else in common;we´re both in winter. .Now my larval tanks are at 24º and each larval stage lasts 4 days or more.I raised my baby shrimp in summer and with 27º each stage was exactly 3 days.
As per your Qs:
You should first contact Bangor for a copy.I got mine from FIT,it is a xerox copy and pics are blurry and b&w,but drawings are fine.Perhaps somebody made a pdf of it,it is quite big.In the meantime you can ask me whatever particularly you are looking for.
I took my pics with microscopes and a cybershot,using an adaptor.

[Ricardo Calado]

Hi Stan

Wunsch's work is only good to identify the firts 6 or 7 stages of L. amboinensis. However, these stages dispaly morphological features that are almost universal to caridean shrimps. The ones that are really important (the latest zoeal satges) re not that easy to identify since larvae perform mark time molting (a series of molts on which the old exoskeleton is discarded but no or only slight morphological changes occur).

Basically you can identify a:

Zoea 1: Eyes fused with carapace
Zoea 2: Pedunculate eyes
Zoea 3: The exopods (external appendages) of uropods appear near the telson and the endopods (the inner appendages are rudimentar but visible).
Zoea4: The endopods of uropods are developped but smaller in lenght than the telson.
Zoea 5: The endopods of uropods are now longerthna the telson.

The other zoeal stages after Z5 can be differenced by the order of appearence of the perieopods and by watching if they are uniramous buds, biramous buds or fully functional. The common order of apperaence is P1, P5, P2, P3 and P4.

The last zoeal stages before metamorphosis can be diagnosed by the development of the pleopods

Megalopa = Samll shrimp = metamorphosis has ocurred
Last Zoea: Pleopods fully functional with several setae
Zoea before the Last: Pleopods are biramous but have a reduced number of setae
Zoea before: Pleopods are biramous buds
Zoea before: Pleopods are uniramous buds

From my experience, L. seticaudata displays the lowest number of larval stages: 9 in total

Some Lysmata species may display 11 or even 13 stages, but I, Andy (Andrew Rhyne) and two other Portuguese colleagues (Catia Bartilotti and Antonina dos Santos) are still working on their larval development and trying to see which Lysmata species are more closely related.

Good luck with your larviculture trials

Ricardo

[Luis A M]

My baby shrimp is now carrying eggs,less than two months after settling!
This was very unexpected because I´ve been following closely his sexual development( it was he until now,now is it she or it?,luckily english has the neutral "it" ).
The shrimp is now in it´s 8th PL instar,i.e.it has molted 7 times since settlement.Only the 7th PL showed some subtle signs that it was starting the transitional phase,from male to hermaphrodite:AM became smaller than AI,which showed some few setae.Nothing else.Seems ovarian development went much faster than the corresponding changes in external morphology!

[drmaz]

Congratulations Luis,

Wow, what a great effort keep up the good work.

Stan

[Luis A M]

Thanks .Now,if eggs develop,we will find if "it"is fertile both as "she"and as "he"

I have now 9 larvae in the 11th zoeal stage.Hopefully,I will be able to document the last larval stages,which was not possible in my previous description.

[Luis A M]

This is the 12th zoea,at 46 days.
Pleopod buds are biramous.Exopod has a terminal seta.



Closer look:

[melev]

Congratulations on a job well done! I just found out about this thread tonight and you've gone beyond most people's expectations in your details & documentation. Half the words and codes you've used 'are greek to me' but I still enjoyed your thread.

[Luis A M]

Thanks Marc!
Crustacean biologists are notorious for the many times unnecessary complicated terminology.But if you read all the thread,you will notice that all terms were explained and when possible changed for words everybody could understand.

[melev]

I read pages 1, 2, 5, and 6. I think the Super Decoder Ring codes must be on pages 3 and 4.

[Fishwhisperer]

Has anyone tried putting coralline algae 'dust' in the amboiensis larval tank to try get more of them to settle????

I heard it somewhere that coralline algae produces a chemical cue that makes the larvae settle but i've never done shrimps thus I cant say either way, perhaps instigating and encouraging the growth of coralline in the larval tank might do the trick?

also I heard that small halides are helpful in larval moulting, possibly related to the types and amount of UV they emit????

anyone shed any further light on these ideas I'd be very grateful as this is one of next year's many projects i plan to undertake

Tom

["Umm, fish?"]

The problem is that settling cues can be different or even nonexistent depending on the type of larvae. Some settle with corraline. Some with chemical cues given off by adults of the species. Or whatever. It's really a matter of finding out whether anyone has done the research on whatever species in particular you are interested in. Of course, it probably wouldn't hurt anything to try it.

[Luis A M]

Lysmata larvae don´t require settling clues.It is just a matter of keeping them alive and when the last stage is reached,it will settle.

Three days ago my CB shrimp released it´s first batch of larvae,a little over two months after settling.Pretty good numbers for a first time!

Now that I have a larger number of larvae to study,I can see that pleop.development do show some variability between individuals:
One Z10 again showed initial buds,but only three.
One Z11 showed initial biramous buds,but much less developed than in Z12.

On the other hand the antenna proved to be a much more stable and reliable staging character;
Z10-doesn´t reach less than the fork of A1, slightly shorter.
Z11-reaches beyond the fork.
Z12-very much longer,reaching about half the branches of A1.

["Umm, fish?"]

Congratulations, Luis!

[melev]

This thread has been nominated for Thread of the Month! (ThOTM) Click here to vote for it to win.

[Luis A M]

This is the 13th zoea,at 55 days.Pleopods developed. The exopod is paddle shaped and with about 15 setae around the distal half.
Endopods are about 1/2 the length of exopods and with 2-3 terminal setae.Endop.of the 1st pair is bare.Both uropods overlap in the picture's lateral view.

[Luis A M]

Seven larvae remain.(remember "Ten Little Indians"?)
Besides the provided food,larvae are feeding of little pieces of algae that come in the water from the head tank.
Don´t know how good they are,but larvae are very fond of them!

[melev]

Luis, how are you taking such close ups of these shrimp? Do they survive the study & photography, or do they have to be sacrificed to provide such data?

[Luis A M]

No,I wouldn´t sacrifice a shrimp or fish for pics or data!
I put them in a well slide and carefully remove most of the water so that they can´t move much,and put them under the scope.They take it very well

Just checked all my "seven little indians".There are four Z13 and three Z12,at 59 days.